It's the end of the world as you know it – brought to you by a Gnome Mage with big balls of fire

My RealID

I am going to share something with you today. It’s my RealID, the one most people know me by, the one even my Mother used for me (as much as she hated it).

My name is Snowy.

Of course if you have ever received an email reply from Gnomeaggedon, I have probably already (chosen to) shared that with you.

Snowy isn’t my TrueID, my legal name, though I have considered changing it.

I have known people for 20+ years that only know me only as Snowy, because I am Snowy. Occasionally there is a need to reveal my Clarke Kent true identity and they are stunned, even disbelieving. Yet, 99% of them continue to refer to me as Snowy.

This ReadID goes back a long way, back before I was born in fact. My family has generations of Snowys, not just my immediate family, my extended family.

The only person in my family that wasn’t a Snowy was my mother. She only hated the name because when someone phoned the house, they would ask to speak with “Snowy” – they had no idea which one of us because we were just Snowy.

I remember vividly the day 35 years ago, as I walked down the driveway towards the city centre, that my Mother said to me…

Son, you have an unusual name. Most people on this earth don’t need to know that name. It is yours, keep it close. Once someone knows your name they will know it forever and they can, and sometimes will, use it against you.

Remember, this is in the days when the house was never locked, the car was parked on the street – unlocked, when young kids could roam the streets without fear and when they got lost, or in trouble, could turn to any person on the street and receive help.

I have been Snowy for 35 years. My workmates refer to me as Snowy, my friends refer to me as Snowy, my family reunions are filled with…

Hey Snowy, it’s been a long time, I remember when I used to dangle you on my knee.

If I have chosen to adopt this as my realID for 35 years, why would I permit a game company, A GAME COMPANY, to reveal my TrueID?

National ID

I have opposed on multiple occasions the introduction of a national ID in Oz, quite simply because if you need to know who I am, I will have already told you.

But at least that is in the name of national security and efficiency.

This is for a GAME COMPANY!

Policy Creep (or is that creepy policy)

When I first went to University, education was free and available to all Australians.

Foolishly I quit.

18 months later the government introduced a $400 per semester fee. I protested (even though I wasn’t studying at Uni at the time), but many people argued…

It’s only $400 and it will weed out those that don’t really want an education.

Now, in some cases it’s $5,000 per subject. This didn’t happen overnight, it crept, budget after budget.

Funding for Uni’s didn’t improve – it declined

It weeded people out. If you could afford it (whether you deserved it or not) you could study. If you couldn’t afford it… Well, why would we want to educate those people anyway, right? They might have non-middleclass views that might jeopardize the rate at which we consume natural resources!

Blizzard’s ReadID is Creepy

Blizzard’s RealID is just to facilitate the communications between real friends (and let their friends see who you are) (which, ummm, I did already via “my own” communication network).

Now it’s to communicate with Blizzard.

Tomorrow it’s to integrate with Facebook

What’s next? So I can get a visa to travel to the U.S.A.?

Cancel tomorrow, wasted.
Cancel today, worthwhile.

As I said to Pie:

Why wait?

Do it now.

Let’s examine this.

Don’t cancel now.

You can play until 20/8 until resubscribing.

The change goes live

In an after the fact act of disgust you let your account expire without Blizzard and Activision knowing how you feel.

You cancel now.

You can play until 20/8 before reactivating your account if you so desire.

The change goes live – whatever, you have already made your statement to blizzard and it’s shareholders.

The change doesn’t go live – blizzard and the shareholders know you were serious and won’t accept this in the future AND you reinforce their positive behavior by resubbing.

Your opinion is heard now in the accounts/finance department, in the management reports, in the shareholder reports, or you accept the change by not acting.

If it takes them until cataclysm to change their mind and your account has been inactive, what have you lost?

Nothing!

You are $15 per month better off – go to the movies, play another game, whatever.

Your characters, achievements etc are all there, just waiting for the day that Blizzard wakes up from this nightmare.

Too little, too late

We didn’t protest the introduction of RealID strongly enough.

Now we have the creep.

How much creep can you handle before you quit, or can you stop the creep now and enjoy all of Blizzard products, present and future?

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33 Responses

I don’t agree with Blizzard’s implementation of Real ID and I, along with almost all of my guild mates don’t use it. Calling Real ID a slippery slope towards some sort of world domination by Blizzard and Facebook is taking it to the extreme.

I’ve enjoyed reading your posts in the past, but you’ve gone over the edge with this Real ID. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. If you don’t like Facebook, don’t use it.

Cancel your account, Blizzard won’t notice. Leave Facebook, Facebook won’t care. Blizzard might change their stance on using Real ID for forum posts since it’s a pretty asinine idea, but if you want to be able to contact your friends across games in Battle.net, you just have to get used to it, or not use it.

Snowy, don’t listen to the Blakes and Daves and John Smiths of the world.

Obviously they are men, not women, and probably have never had to deal with stalkers. I’m female and I have had such experiences. The problem with guys like that is how arrogant, selfish and self-centered they are – so all they are going to do is tell you to ‘stop qqing and don’t use it.’

What rubbish. This is about way more than that but they’ll never care, all they will care about is the damned game.

Stick to your guns, you are not the one being extreme… BLIZZARD is being EXTREME by setting a brand new unholy precedent of privacy abuse! Those guys telling you not to qq are the ones being extreme in their selishness and narrowminded lack of compassion.

And yes, generally the people that feel a change is benign are the ones with the least to lose… or most to benefit.

A true measure of society is one that cares for those less capable of caring for themselves.

(By this I don’t in any way mean to suggest that women don’t have power, or are powerful, but in the instance of RealID, they/you seem to have been told to stop crying and leave it to the (white middleclass) men. Well, as one of those while middleclass men that apparently have nothing to worry about… it’s my turn to care about my society)

Haha well you won’t like me much really, probably, because some will say I’m being paranoid…

I am happy to support someone like you. I am honest myself and don’t brown-nose the status quo, so I’m not likely to be popular. I sincerely hope you find another game or something much better to write about. Myself, I doubt I’ll be playing another online game until I see that they are no longer capable of making these slow, subtle changes that drain us and eventually attack our real life rights.

I never cared for extreme feministic rubbish either, so no worries – I am not the sort to ‘blame the white man.’ This isn’t about skin color, it’s about greedy power hungry creeps and those who continue to ENABLE THEM.

As for women, we DO have more harassment problems, and that’s just the facts of life. You can’t bury that behind “oh but everyone should be equal.” Sure we should have equal rights, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t different.

It’s disgusting what actibuzzard is doing. And I’m sick to death of hearing of how it’s ‘optional.’

Anyone who says that is totally ignorant about how changeable the net is, and how it is almost inevitable that at some point, bugs or hackers or security holes will expose their names/rl info anyway. (OOPS, I forgot, that has already happened – the security hole in the addons!!!!!) It’s a matter of time, they will pay the price.

Most of all, I fear what’s next – with other companies (maybe governments) following suit, and if this becomes ‘the norm.’ We will ALL lose!!! People would say I’m paranoid but hell I’d rather say it now than wait until it’s fact and it’s too damn late.

I miss my guild mates and playing of the game as much as the next person. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow a friggin GAME to make me as much of a sheeple as these others.

Facebook and actibuzzard are pure evil, but people are too lazy and blind, and will continue to sacrifice their own freedoms for a little pleasure, ego-building, and convenience.

So I don’t post on the forums. No great loss, I can find the info I want/need elsewhere. In fact, many of the people who read this blog, know me as I’ve either commented on their blog and in some cases sent them emails asking them questions.

BUT, one area of knowledge I might need on the wow forums is when WOW isn’t working and I need some direction. Or I file an in game ticket and they ask me to post on the forums for help because they can’t help me.

Now, my name is on the forums, open to the tards that live there.

Oh and I can google my name and find enough information on the first page to pretty quickly find things I don’t need tards on the wow forums to know.

You are right, blizz won’t notice when Gnomer leaves. But what about the other “Gnomers” out there who are just as angry?

How many people will it take for Blizz to notice? How many blog posts or news articles? Whatever number it is, you have to start with 1 to get to that number.

If you don’t like his posts, just go away and read some other blog and quit whining about it in the comments.

I don’t like to use the term “slippery slope”, it’s like using “Hitler”, you know the argument is lost by uttering the words. But everything that has been revealed over the last few days suggests that maybe we are already on the highway to hell

You’ve stated it exactly as it is Gnomer/Snowy. I too haven’t gone by my real name ever, as I’m a Jr and have always had a nickname so as to not be confused with my father.

This change is a direct result of their partnership with Facebook, otherwise it make zero sense at all. There is no other reason to force this on the player base except to integrate and share data with Facebook. Facebook is known for its superior security isn’t it? I had a Facebook account and inactivated it (as you can’t delete it) with the various security problems it has.

We play/played WOW because it is a game and an escape, not to have real life issues continue into our game play.

It is only a matter of time before RealID isn’t optional to play anymore it will be required.

Facebook is not only known for it’s (lack of) security, but also for it’s creators hatred for privacy… contempt for privacy… and his refusal to prevent people from being harmed while using his tool… right from the days when he was creating it.

I have enjoyed your blog for quite awhile now, though I am a Frosty. :p
However I am inclined to think that you occasionally overreact.
As long as the ingame RealID stuff remains optional, I’m OK. They’re not forcing us to integrate with Facebook.
As for the forums, I don’t post there anyways. When I’ve needed help I’ve used their “Contact Us” form and they’ve emailed me back and even offered telephone numbers for easier support.
I do think they should reconsider the Forum IDs though.

Yes Sunny, I do know that. However that was a choice I made outside of the game, a choice made by me before I began blogging.

This isn’t a choice made by me (or millions of others), it is something that is being rammed down our throats.

If it was about the forums it would be bad enough, but it isn’t and there are already many unannounced changes that are obvious to see – yet Blizzard isn’t giving the whole story.

They are boiling frogs one degree at a time.

Honestly, I’m a big (white middleclassed) guy and I don’t have that much to worry about. There are many many more people that do need to dear this now, and more importantly the future it will bring.

There are many wow imitators. If this goes through, every gaming company in the world will follow suit (except those picking up the lost sons and daughters of wow).

When I protest a war, it’s not because I am there, it’s because I can empathize with the victims.

When I protest a tax, a law, racism, sexism, sexual-orientation discrimination, a, well anything unfair it’s not necessarily because it directly effects me, it’s because I have been blessed with a human mind that allows me to empathize and the wherewithal to act.

I’ve been saying for a while that if everyone who was upset all canceled at once, with the “reason” explaining their objection to RealID, Bliz would have to take notice. I’ll be linking this when I say it now. Thanks!

Feel free to link. I doubt I personally had much to do with it, but a lot of people felt strongly about it, but the target was clear.. just a shame we weren’t given “Blizzards vision of the future” when RealID was 1st introduced… if we were, the battle would (be) have been much easier.